Rapper Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs will have to serve time in a New York City prison once described as ‘Hell on Earth’ after being plagued by suicides and murders after a judge denied his bail on Tuesday.
Combs, 54, was remanded into federal custody as he awaits trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, and will now be serving pretrial detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The jail has become the Big Apple’s primary federal detention center since 2021, when the Bureau of Prisons shuttered its sister facility in Manhattan – where child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein died – over its appalling conditions.
Combs’ lawyers even acknowledged the deplorable conditions in a motion for bail on Tuesday, noting that ‘several courts in this District have recognized that the conditions at Metropolitan Detention Center are not fit for pre-trial detention.’
‘Just earlier this summer, an inmate was murdered,’ the hip hop mogul’s defense attorneys wrote, according to the Daily Beast.
‘At least four inmates have died by suicide there in the past three years.’
The attorneys were referencing the June 7 death of Uriel Whyte, who had been awaiting trial on gun charges for more than two years when he was stabbed to death.
The prison was put into a lockdown in the aftermath, ‘where essentially, we come out of our cell every three days for a 15-minute shower,’ one inmate told NY 1 at the time.
‘You’re literally in solitary confinement when you shouldn’t be,’ he said.
But just over one month later, another inmate, Edwin Cordero, died after being injured in a prison fight.
His attorney called his death ‘senseless and completely preventable’ and said Cordero was ‘another victim of MDC Brooklyn, an overcrowded, understaffed and neglected federal jail that is Hell on Earth,’ according to the New York Times.
Inmates and their lawyers have also claimed they found cockroaches on their food and mold in the showers, and in a number of recent legal cases, conditions at the prison were describes as ‘dreadful,’ ‘longstanding,’ ‘dirty,’ ‘inhuman’ and an ‘ongoing tragedy,’ Combs’ attorneys argued.
The issues apparently began in February 2019, a fire cut off power and heat to parts of the jail and inmates had to suffer in near freezing temperatures and in darkness after the sun went down.
Inmates inside the jail at the time included Nxivm sex-cult leader Keith Raniere and accused jewelry thief mastermind Damir Pejcinovic, as well as MS-13 gang members and mafiosos.
At the time, Deirdre von Dornum, who oversees the Federal Defenders’ Brooklyn team said that inmates had wrapped themselves ‘head to toe in towels and blankets’.
The crisis came to a head with protesters rallying outside the facility, where inmates banged on the walls of the jail and flashed nightlights in a plea for help.
A class action lawsuit over the outage was settled last year for roughly $10million, the Daily Beast reports.
But conditions continued to deteriorate during the pandemic, with US District Judge Colleen McMahon bemoaning in 2021 her ‘complete and utter inability to do anything meaningful’ about the situation at New York City jails like the MDC – which she said were ‘run by morons.’
Renewed attention to the conditions inside the prison came as celebrities spoke out about what they had to endure.
Ghislaine Maxwell, for example, had been held at the facility in 2021 and while behind bars her lawyers complained she was underfed, losing her hair, given meals with plastic melted into the food, having to drink contaminated water and could smell overflowing toilets.
She also claimed that correctional officers were physically abusing her, holding her in ‘defacto solitary confinement,’ keeping her awake with flashlights and subjected her to constant humiliating searches.
In a letter seen by Insider, her attorney Bobbi C. Sternheim wrote: ‘Cockroaches and rodents are plentiful and glue tracks have been placed in Ms. Maxwell’s day area to help remediate the problem.’
‘The worst part is there’s no real outdoors space. It’s just a place to warehouse human beings.’
Insider also reported that lawyers are often left waiting for hours to see their clients who are inside the jail.
Maxwell has since been moved to a facility in Tallahassee, Florida known for its yoga program and inmate talent show, after being sentenced to 20 years behind bars in June 2022.
Previous inmate R Kelly also had his lawyers sued the prison after he claimed they placed him on suicide watch as a punishment.
In July of 2022 after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking and abusing young girls, his attorney said officers had violated his rights.
Jennifer Bonjean said Kelly had been in ‘fine form’ after being held at the prison but she believed he had been put on suicide watch for ‘punitive reasons’.
At least three judges have now refused to order defendants to the jail in recent years due to its conditions, and others would often reduce sentences at the prison due to its abhorrent conditions.
In August, Judge Gary Brown even threatened to vacate an elderly man’s nine-month sentence if he were sent to the MDC, citing its ‘dangerous, barbaric conditions.’
He referenced both Whyte and Cordero’s deaths, writing that they ‘demonstrate a woeful lack of supervision over the facility, a breakdown of order and an environment of lawlessness within its confines that constitute unacceptable, reprehensible and deadly mismanagement,’ according to the New York Daily News.
The prison has since stopped accepting any inmates serving out their sentences, the Daily News reported over the weekend.
No formal explanation was given for the change, but one law enforcement source told the newspaper: ‘I think it’s kind of in response to what Judge Brown did.’
There are currently only 42 individuals serving out their sentence at the prison.
The rest are being detained ahead of criminal trials, like Diddy.
‘They know this place should be shut down, and it is impossible, nearly impossible, for you to fight a case from MDC Brooklyn,’ an inmate only identified as Eli told NY 1.
‘Forget about your constitutional rights – human rights here are a problem.’
In court on Tuesday, Combs’ attorneys, Marc Agnifilo and Teny R Geragos, urged a federal judge to accept a $50million bond tied to Combs’ Miami residence to let the rapper walk free before his trial.
They argued that his ‘extraordinary’ decision to fly to New York, where he was staying at the Park Hyatt ahead of his arrest on Monday, was proof of his ‘trustworthiness and lack of flight risk.’
‘These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court,’ the attorneys said, according to the Times.
But prosecutors argued that Combs is still a threat to his alleged victims and witnesses, with one characterizing him as a ‘serial abuser and a serial obstructer,’ Rolling Stone reports.
They also pointed out that after Dawn Richard, the most recent person to come forward with sexual abuse accusations against Combs, sued the rapper earlier this month, he contacted a former bandmate 128 times – including calling her 58 times over four days – until she put out a statement supporting him.
US Judge Robyn Tarnofsky eventually sided with the prosecution, citing a potential flight risk, Combs’ anger issues and past substance abuse.
‘My concern is that this is a crime that happens behind closed doors,’ she said.
Diddy has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution charges, and following the hearing on Tuesday, his attorney promised to appeal Tarnofsky’s decision to deny bail.
‘Mr Combs is a fighter – he will fight this until the end. He is innocent. He came to New York to establish his innocence. He is not afraid – he is not afraid of the charges,’ Agnifilo said.
‘He has been looking forward to clearing his name and he is going to clear his name. We believe in him whole heartedly. He didn’t do these things.’
But if convicted on the racketeering charges, Combs faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a sex trafficking conviction would carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years behind bars.
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